Leli’s Bakery

Really yummy! I like the pastries, specifically the napoleons, anything with fruit, and the cupcakes! Great coffee too. Not expensive!

I bought a Red Velvet Cake for a Christmas get together and it was the hit of the party. The cake was sweet, buttery goodness. Leli’s customer service was also great even during the holiday rush. A+!

This is the only bakery in Astoria I’ll go to. I have tried about 10 things from here and not one item hasn’t been stellar. Everything is always fresh, the cookies are soft (they actually have sugar cookies which are hard to find) and the rest of the pastries are always moist and flavorful. The sales help is knowledgable and friendly as well. I honestly find that the other bakeries in Astoria lack taste and arnt always fresh and this shop never disappoints.

Best apple pies, the crust is beyond delicious! I don’t usually indulge in sweets but when I do it better be worth it, and it is!

Came here to order my friends’s birthday cake since she mentioned it was her favorite bakery. Hands down the best cake ever, everyone loved it! Highly recommended the chocolate ganache with buttercream as a topping. The owner Karim is very nice and professional and I would def come back here if I’m in the area. I highly recommended and such a cute place as well!

I love this bakery! The pastries are always of an excellent quality and the atmosphere is peaceful and tranquil.
The price is fair as well.
I got a whole cake here once (cookies & cream was the flavor) and it was only average in quality though so that is why I must deduct a star from my review. If I hadn’t had that poor cake experience it would be an easy five stars.

Their bread is good. However pastries are overpriced for what they are. They charged me $ 4.50 for a small lobster tail pastry. It is way too much compared to the prices in the neighborhood. In addition they do not display prices next to their merchandise. Instead they hit you with the tag at the register.

LOVE this place! Quaint and cozy atmosphere. Always decorated for the appropriate holiday and season. Great lattes. Potato pie cheese thingy was incredible. Diverse assortment of confections and breads. A bit pricey, but the quality is worth it. Sometimes the ladies who work there are a bit pushy, but it appears to be just to expedite service and prevent long lines.

Best «under the radar» breakfast and bakery in Astoria. Leli’s is a Maltese bakery/​café with many gems. The Maltese bread is amazing, all of the other bread and rolls too. They have traditional Maltese sweet and savory pastries, pies and fresh squeezed orange juice, along with more conventional cakes and cupcakes. Today I ordered an omelet with veggies and feta, and it arrived in gorgeous form with a fresh salad and roll. The service is personal, has a neighborhood feel, and they have wifi. They often have daily specials in the bakery like focaccia with turkey bacon and vegetables.
My favorite neighborhood bakery for all of the above reasons.

Overall my experience was pretty great. I’ll say this-I’ll definitely use them to make a cake again and get goodies. Service was great when I sat down to tell them about the design I wanted. Only issue I had was there were a few flaws with the cake like a few nail imprints and some fondant wasn’t cut evenly. I would just make sure they know what I expect next time but like I said I will give them business again.

I am highly upset and need to share my experiences. The tiramisu is good. The latte on the other hand is not so great. When I gave her my credit card, she didn’t tell me how much my total is. Then I’m wondering why my cup feel so light. I am mortified when I opened the cup to only to find that it’s half empty! What the!!! Did I order a small? NO. It’s not right to charge someone that much for half a cup of latte. It’s actually not that good so I have to add a lot of sugar. I’m not ordering anymore drinks from here. It’s way too disappointing.

The food here is pretty good, and the bakery is super cute!
I don’t understand the great service reviewers — are you all European? I think so… I thought service was ridiculously slow. I used to go here often — but for the last year or so — I feel their prices are far greater than the competition. Last time, I paid around $ 4 for one small spinach/​cheese pastry. This ain’t Manhattan! Also, I once had to literally read out loud to the server — all the ingredients of the tea they listed because they didn’t even know what was on their own menu, lol!
After experiencing the extremely slow service on numerous occasions, and over paying, I stopped going here about a year ago.

I recently ordered a birthday cake for my baby’s birthday. The staff were very receptive to my requests and made a beautiful cake! It was vanilla with buttercream and fresh strawberries. We got a lot of compliments from guests about the cake. They were very professional and also called up the next day to ask how the cake was! Definitely will keep going back for more.

I’ve had three pastries from here in the last two weeks; everything was amazing and the price was right ($ 2.50−75/pastry). The cherry cheese danish, chocolate filled pastry, and almond pastries were definitely worth it.
Next time I hope they have some lighter roast coffee available, but I really can’t complain since baked goods are what they do best – the caffeine is simply a bonus.

Thank God I go to the gym because I could probably regain my Freshman 15 back with the treats at Leli’s. I have to reiterate the previous reviewers – this place is truly a hidden gem in Astoria.
The first time I came to Leli’s was two days ago. I live a block away from this bakery and pass it every time I head to the subway, so a visit was bound to happen. I just didn’t know that it would be love at first bite. Truth be told, I only ordered two (2) macaroons – blueberry and pistachio – and a cinnamon joule/​jule (sp?) with a sweet date paste inside. The blueberry macaroon was too dry and crunchy all around, but the pistachio macaroon had the right amount of crisp and softness to its cake while the cream filling was moist and gooey as well. Both had subtle sweet tastes. The cinnamon date pastry was too sweet; did not like the rich, gooey, teeth-​rotting sweetness of the date filling.
The second time (yesterday) I went, I ordered a chocolate croissant after reading other reviews. So. Delicious. I personally am not a fan of chocolate (crazy, I know), but the chocolate chips dotted in the chocolate filling really added more to the soft, layered bread of the croissant. I had chocolate all over my face by the time I was finished (like actually. Someone pointed out a streak of brown on my cheek – oops)
The third and most recent time I went (which was today), I ordered a cherry and cheese danish. Um, oh my gosh. So good. I didn’t realize how bad of danishes I had been previously eating (see packaged danishes from my YMCA’s vending machines) until I had this one. The bread was soft and layered like a croissant, and the cheese filling tasted like cheesecake – moist, dense, and creamy. The cherries were a little bit too sugary and artificial for me, but that’s personal preference.
I still have yet to try everything, and I want to say that this place will break my piggy bank. But the prices for the items are pretty cheap. 2 macaroons = $ 1.98
1 chocolate croissant = 3.50 (I think?)
1 Danish = 2.75 (I think?)
Not to mention that the ladies who work at the bakery are so sweet. Oh, and there are samples too. I had strawberry/​cherry angel cake and some chocolate cream swirl cake bite. Again, not a huge fan of chocolate, but I loved how my teeth sank into the moist, subtly sweet cake.

This café is really a wonderful Astoria gem!
They just recently incorporated a food menu and I tried their BBQ chicken sandwich which was so fresh and delicious. It came on a home-​made italian roll with dark leafy greens and tomato with a side of hand-​cut seasoned fries.
Everything is quality here & they have internet, tables with comfy chairs and outlets! :)
Thumbs up.

I love this place. A hidden gem in Astoria.
The first time I was here, I brought my mom for a cup of joe, and the coffee was good (it’s worth mentioning that I completed Blue Bottle training back in the day, so can tell a good cup of coffee from a bad one). I’m not the biggest croissant fan, but my mom said the pastries were oh so good, they «melted in the mouth» and all that jazz.
I then started coming in for coffee after my morning workout at the gym a few blocks away. Great experience every time. Today… they exceeded my expectations. I ordered a smoked salmon omelette with a side salad and a freshly squeezed OJ. It was one of the best brunches I’ve had in my life. I was absolutely impressed with the food taste and quality + friendly service.
You can tell that this place has a lot of regulars. If you live in the area, you should become one too!

«They’re lucky it tastes good»
That’s what I told my fiancé at our engagement party last night, after having a piece of our custom-​made cake from Leli’s. I usually go to that café to get some work done or enjoy a cup of coffee and a cupcake. Since I enjoy coming here and usually order a treat, I decided to order a cake from them for our engagement party. BIG MISTAKE.
They requested that I give them a picture of the cake I want so they can make it look like how I would like. I found a picture of a «blue ombré cake» and asked that they write our initials on top of the cake using the same color that’s at the bottom (aqua blue). They interpreted it as «the entire cake… only in blue.» This wasn’t just the beautiful blue that I picked out for the cake, but COOKIE MONSTER BLUE. When I told the manager that I did not order that cake and it was not what I wanted, he simply replied «There is nothing we can do». He didn’t even offer to try to make it better or look nicer with details. My options were to either a) Not take the cake and get a $ 52 store credit, or b) Take the cake and get breakfast on the house sometime. NO DISCOUNT.
I’m sorry, but that is just terrible customer service. We were so embarrassed at how the cake looked that we had the restaurant cut it into slices and then serve our guests instead of present it. So, while it definitely was NOT what we wanted, they’re lucky the cake tasted good (which is why it got 2 stars instead of one). It seems like their expensive, custom-​made cakes are not so custom after all. What’s the point of paying them for it? I’m very disappointed.

This place makes me very sad, because the store itself is so cute and incredibly inviting, and everything looks absolutely delicious… The problem is, that each thing I’ve tried has been just average or maybe even below average. I didn’t enjoy the cupcakes, the regular cookies or even the pecan square cookies. Maybe I am ordering the wrong things? I’m not sure, but I stopped trying and I’m not sure I’ll try again.

We asked for a cannoli cupcake, no luck… so we settled on what we thought was a cinnamon item but it turned out to be «almond paste» and was quite tasty in an old school way. PS it’s Terrizzi on gMaps.
*Their full description of the item, as the entire display is unlabeled.